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Reinstated by Supreme Court, impeached by PDP

March 5, 2013 : Mike Odiegwu

Tukur

Mike Odiegwu captures the dilemma of three local government chairmen in Bayelsa State whose tenure was truncated by executive fiat but restored by a judgment of the court

It became clear on February 15 that the Chairman of Sagbama Local Government Area, Mr. Koku Gariga and his counterpart in Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area, Mr. Ineye Igbagingha, had been successfully kicked out of their various offices by the Peoples Democratic Party in Bayelsa State.

Gariga and Igbayingha were among the three local government chairmen who were reinstated to their positions by the Supreme Court in December after winning a protracted legal dispute against their party.

But their victory was cut short barely two months after they were grudgingly sworn in by the state government in obedience to the judgment of the apex court.

No doubt, the chairmen had again lost their fight to retain their seats, when the Governor of the state, Mr. Seriake Dickson, in a brief ceremony at the Banqueting Hall inaugurated the leaders of the legislative assemblies in Sagbama and Kolokuma/Opokuma as acting chairmen of the councils.

While Mr. Ebikeme Okoringa, was incoherent when reading a written oath was sworn in by the governor as the acting Chairman of Kolokuma/Opokuma, Mr. Napoleon Akoso, was put in charge of Sagbama. The two were recommended to the governor by their councillors after dutifully impeaching the chairmen.

Curiously, the Chairman of Ekeremor, Mr. Selekebina Saboh, was spared following reports that he had begun to mend fences with the PDP leaders in the state.

Discerning political observers were shocked at the political rigmarole that led to the sack of the chairmen. They had thought that the party would have allowed the chairmen who had only about four months to complete their tenure, especially as the state had scheduled March to hold another local government election.

They also recalled that the sacked chairmen were reinstated by the Supreme Court after a legal battle that spanned about three years. Having fought and won the battle of illegal substitution against the party, the embattled chairmen, they argued, were at least expected to be allowed by the party to complete their truncated tenure.

However, fresh trouble started for the estranged chairmen a month after their inauguration.It became clear that the chairmen would lose their seats after the PDP accused them of disloyalty and gross misconduct.

The state Chairman of the PDP, Col. Sam Inokoba (retd), said the chairmen had refused to show signs of repentance and “to consult the party under whose platform judgment was passed in their favour.”

He wondered why the chairmen were running the councils as sole administrators without appointing vice-chairmen.

“This is because the three chairmen of Kolokuma /Opokuma, Sagbama, and Ekeremor local government councils had arrogated powers to themselves, jettisoned democratic principles and created a state of insecurity in their council areas.

“The legislative arms and the chairmen are at loggerheads because of failure on the part of the chairmen to respect the rule of law and give the legislative arms their rightful place in the scheme of things”, he said.

But the chairmen blamed their travails on Dickson, claiming that the governor was subverting the law in his desperate move to remove them. The chairmen in an open letter written on their behalf by one Chief Wonibowei Dickson faulted the process that led to their removal.

In the letter, Wonibowei argued that the actions of the councillors and that of the Chief Judge of the state, Mr. Kate Abiri, who constituted an investigative panel that indicted the chairmen were at variance with judicial process.

The letter was also sent to the Chairman, National Judicial Service Commission, and the office of President Goodluck Jonathan. The letter reads in part, “Ever since they (the reinstated chairmen) assumed office, they have been inundated with threats capable of making their tenure unpalatable.

“And this moves as we are told is being instigated by the governor. The threat is coming from a fraction of councillors who have taken it upon themselves to do the bidding of the governor and his aides who have sworn to remove them from office when they have spent just a month and a handful of weeks in office.

“On January 29, 2013 the High Court granted an order restraining the defendants from sitting as a legislative arm to pass a resolution pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice dated January 28, 2013.

“That in total defiance and utter disregard to the Honourable Court, the defendants gathered themselves at an unknown destination to the exclusion of the claimants and decided to commence an impeachment proceedings against the chairmen.

“The defendants (councillors) asked the Chief Judge to constitute a panel to investigate the alleged offences against the chairmen when there is a suit in court in that direction.”

But Dickson distanced himself from the travails of the embattled chairmen. A day before he inaugurated the acting chairmen for two of the crisis-ridden local councils, he blamed the tension in Sagbama, Kolokuma/Opokuma and Ekeremor local government areas on the conduct of the chairmen.

He described claims by the chairmen that he was after their lives as blackmail. The governor who spoke while celebrating his one year in office said, the chairmen who were reinstated by the Supreme Court had problems because they failed to work with their councillors.

Dickson wondered why the chairmen refused to select their deputies despite the advice of the PDP whose tickets gave them the platforms.

He insisted that the chairmen were having problems because they chose to be sole administrators instead of nominating their vice chairmen as recommended by the law.

Dickson said though he did not believe in the facts of the case that gave the chairmen victory, he demonstrated his belief in the rule of law when he ordered that they should be sworn in in obedience to the judgment.

“I have lived my life to the service of law. I have been a policeman, a commissioner of Justice and a federal legislator. I can’t disobey the judgment of the court even though I disagree with some positions of the chairmen.

“The chairmen failed to work and manage their councillors. These councillors have been there for three years. They could not manage their councillors the way I am managing my Assembly”, he said.

He added, “They did not follow such democratic process and the councillors are insisting on their autonomy and they declare that they cannot be sole administrators. What they are doing now is to blackmail me into supporting them but my support will go to those doing the right thing.”

Also, while inaugurating the acting chairmen, Dickson recalled the circumstances that led to their emergence saying his administration never bargained for it.

Warning them against neglecting their legislative councils, Dickson asked the acting chairmen to desist from running their councils as sole administrators.

Addressing them, he said, “I want to remind you that you are not to operate as sole administrators like your predecessors tried to do. I want to commend the councillors who resisted the antics of your predecessors.”

He asked other councillors to rise up and defend their legislative authorities just as he appealed to the chairmen to work harmoniously with their councillors.

Shortly after the ceremony, Dickson had tactically referred to the impeached chairmen as rascals in another event to inaugurate 32 Rural Development Committee Chairmen.

The governor who signed the Local Government Amendment Bill into law had reminded the G32 that the local government funds were not their personal property.

He asked the chairmen to consult with the ministry of local government to know their entitlements, adding that whatever remained after their benefits must be used for developmental purposes.

“That is the problem we already have with some rascals who do not know that this state has moved beyond them. No chairman of council will be allowed to treat council funds like his pocket money,” he said.

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